Fallen Apples
by magicmumu
Summary: The White Knight was supposed to be good. The knight was supposed to save people, but Emma couldn't save the woman who needed her the most… Swan Queen/Remma


Fallen Apples

by Erin Griffin

Fandom: Once Upon A Time

Pairing: Regina/Emma (Swan Queen/Remma)

Summary: The White Knight was supposed to be good. The knight was supposed to save people, but Emma couldn't save the woman who needed her the most...

Disclaimer: ABC owns them, I am just really sorry I had to do this to them.

**WARNING! **There is character death in this story. I am very sorry, but this story wouldn't leave me alone and it was the first story to write itself in a long time. Again, I am sorry, and if the Swan Queen Nation and/or Evil Regals wish to lynch me, I'll be in the corner crying and rocking back and forth while whispering 'what have I done?' I won't resist capture, I promise.

He was known here as simply Grumpy. It fit him, really, but Emma's mind always called him Leroy. None of the characters really went by their old names very much she had seen, anyway. Despite the stories she grew up with, the dwarves weren't short and for the most part they weren't cute, but they were every bit as loyal to Snow, and seeing that she was Snows daughter, they had been nothing less than kind to her. It had nothing to do with the fact that...

"HI!" Leroy hollered, and was answered with "HO!" with each swing of the shoves as they hit the ground. Emma tried to drown out the rhythmic sounds of a grave being dug and turned away, but only for a moment. She needed to be there to witness everything, seeing as they needed no real supervision. "HI!"

"HO!"

"HI!"

"HO!"

Emma looked over to the lifeless body that would soon make its home in the grave being dug. Queen Regina lay in a gown made of purple material, her face painted some to make the body less creepy. Her hair was longer than Emma was used to seeing, but according to Sidney, who was apparently furniture here, her hair used to be longer. It was as if a perfectly balanced of the woman each world knew was showing now, and Emma knew she didn't like it. Still, with her face pale yet paint, her hair dark and curled, her eyes shut almost as if in sleep, it seemed to Emma that Regina should have been the one to awaken with a kiss, and Emma had plenty to give. It was hard to believe that she wouldn't hear the woman's snarky comments to her, the playful banter, and the seductive tones that charmed Emma into bed. She wouldn't look into Regina's brown eyes that blazed with passion during fights and love making. Emma wouldn't see that finely trimmed eyebrow arch in irritation or rise in amusement at her and Henry's antics. Emma wouldn't get the chance to say the most magical words of this world to Regina again for the dark woman to hear. And Emma wouldn't hear them from Regina ever again, and that ripped her apart.

_ 'Use me,' Emma said to the woman before her. Hands were clasped between them, their upper bodies almost touching if it weren't for the bundle of fingers to separate them. Hazel and dark green eyes stared at each other, boring into the other in a challenge of good and evil, right and wrong. 'To return everyone and stop Gold-'_

_ 'No,' Regina said. In the distance there is the sound of howling. Ruby, who led one of the groups to fend off the Shadow Army, must have gotten hurt. The howl was chilling, but not enough for either woman to break eye contact._

_ 'There is no other way but this. Please! Use me. You and Henry can live your lives in the other world. You can have your Happily Ever After. I don't belong there.'_

_ 'I can't! I-I won't!" The grip on Emma's hand increased in pressure, and Regina leaned forward as if to tell Emma a secret. "There is no Happily Ever After without you. To know that I-' Regina broke one of her hands free of Emma's long enough to touch her cheek tenderly and lean forward for a kiss. She was mindful of the fresh cut on Emma's chin as her fingers danced upon her face. It was just a couple of seconds before Regina had felt it, and reached. Her hand went into her chest, and found her heart, beating strong and fast as it always did with Emma's kiss. Regina backed slowly out of the kiss. The hopeful look in Emma's eyes- the thought that maybe Regina wouldn't do as planned was there, but she didn't see what was in the darker woman's hand until it was too late. 'I love you, Emma Swan.'_

_ 'REGINA NO!' Emma was helpless as she watched the heart leave Regina's hand and fall into the pit that held the spell to bring the citizens of Storybrook back to where they belonged. A cyclone rose above their heads and past the tree line and who knew how far into the sky. Emma felt the hand in hers loosen, and the body in front of her fall limp. This was Graham all over again, Emma realized as they fell to the ground together._

_ 'Henry...' Regina said in a whisper before her eyes went blanks._

_ 'Regina no," Emma said again, this time through tears as she held the woman to her chest. The light from the pit got brighter, the winds around them stronger, and Emma saw black..._

The truth had been revealed: There was magic in the world Emma lived in. They were small pockets of magic that had seeped in when the curse had been made, as well as a dozen magic beans that had been in the wrong hands. Such magic needed to be used, needed a place to go, and magic that had been dark and used for revenge, well... That magic waited. It waited twenty nine years before it sought out its master, known mostly as The Dark One. It consumed his son, and when August died of his Earth disease, it seeped into the Evil One's every thought and taught him what to do, where to go to look. With The Dark One as its master, shadows rose over Storybrook, and the curse began to tear. Both worlds began to tear. Truer still, and more hurtful, was that Emma was no white knight. She had known this from the start, but she had started to believe. Perhaps that was her biggest mistake. She let that get to her head a little bit as she dealt with Regina, with Henry, and even with Mary Margaret- her mother.

The White Knight was supposed to be good. The knight was supposed to save people, but Emma couldn't save the woman who needed her the most, and that no longer made her special if only in the eyes of a little boy. She was now an ordinary person, someone who wouldn't know or understand the ways of this new land, a place she already knew she didn't belong. Sure, she had some powerful friends and family- hell, she was royalty! - but she knew she wouldn't be happy. She knew deep down that if she had spent the rest of her days arguing with Regina over Henry, even as he was well in his mid-life crisis, that would have been a happier life than what she had expected to come.

Emma walked a few paces to the left of where she stood and reached above her to the apple tree Regina was going to be buried under. It only suited her, and Emma hoped Regina's spirit would remain there to keep it growing in the summer and keep it from dying in the winter. The blonde grabbed the reddest, most beautiful apple within reach and went back to the body, where she knelt down to place it in Regina's hand. "I don't know, one for the road?" Emma whispered. She got no response, and wondered how crazy she would have been to hope for one. After all, there was magic everywhere in this world. If anything, the afterlife had to have existed here if nowhere else. "You were right. You, Henry 'n me. There can be no other Happily Ever After. You'll wait for us yeah?" she asked.

Grumpy who had sometime during her thoughts or her talk with Regina stopped shouting, stepped a couple of paces forward and stayed silent. There was a strange look upon his face, and it was clear the dwarf didn't know how he felt about the woman he was burying, but he was respectful in his silence. "We're ready. When you are, Your Majesty."

"Cut it out. You know my name."

To this, Leroy only cleared his throat. Emma jumped when a hand reached out with a red rose, and placed it over the two hands that held Emma's picked apple. There was a hesitance and Emma looked to the owner of the hand. Henrys face was red and wet with tears. He had been the bravest of them all in the battle for the fairytale world, and the battle to save the people of Storybrook. He stood beside her now in the royal White colors, so handsome and regal in his own right if not for the reason he was there. Emma wore a similar outfit, looking princely herself, but she wore neutral colors that belonged to no lands, even as she sported the White and Charming house crests. People knew who she was, not because she was the princess, but because she was Sheriff Swan of Storybrook, and she wanted to keep it that way. There was no telling what thoughts flew through the Henry's head, but Emma knew they weren't going to leave for as long as he lived. "Would you like me to...?" Emma asked softly, gesturing awkwardly towards Regina's frame. The boy nodded, and Emma rearranged Regina's fingers so that they cradled both the apple and the rose. Emma looked away as a tear of her own threatened to fall. "It's up to Henry," she choked out finally.

She couldn't watch the rest of the dwarves as they closed the glass coffin over Regina's beautiful face. Emma turned so that her back was now to the activity, and she moved again, her boots seeming to sink into the ground with every step. She made it halfway to her horse before she heard it. "Emma!" The cry of her name was so desperate that she stopped moving in her tracks. A moment later, she felt her hand being grabbed, and then wetness there. "Please don't leave."

"I'm not going to leave."

"You're going to leave," Henry said as fresh tears welled in his eyes and then fell. He put Emma's hand to his forehead. She felt how warm it was from all the crying, but this gesture was meant to what? To beg her? With that thought, Emma gently took her hand back but the boy grabbed on to her shirt desperately. "Please... I can't lose you," Henry said, his voice breaking. Emma's heart was breaking too because she heard the two words that hung after the sentence, both of which showed just how broken this kid was now.

'Please don't leave me too...'

'Please don't leave me again...'

"I can't stay here Henry," Emma tried to explain. She didn't move, but Henry's grip on her shirt got tighter as his face buried into the material.

"Take me with you then."

"What about the Charmings? Didn't you want to live here with them?"

"I wanted..."

But Emma knew what he wanted. He had wanted a mother in all that time, never realizing that he always had one. Henry believed he didn't love his mother, the Evil Queen, but he had. He always had. There were more good memories than bad with Regina and he knew that. The guilt on his face now was strong and wicked within the boy, and Emma pulled him physically off of her.

"I don't know this place. We didn't grow up here. It could be dangerous." Henry opened his mouth as if to speak, but Emma continued before he made a sound. "If you think you can brave this world with someone like me, Henry... get on the horse." There was no hesitation. Henry shot off like a bullet towards the brown horse that stood separate from the small cart that had brought Henry to the burying ceremony. To her surprise, he hopped on the horse's back with little struggle, and Emma, much less gracefully made her way behind the boy. Henry handed her the reigns. Both of them had learned the basics to riding a horse (Henry as a must from his mother, and Emma from this strange ranch an ex-boyfriend had taken her to on a date), but it was hardly enough for them to get going at more than a trot for a while but soon they were out of sight while Grumpy watched.

Years and decades pass and so many changes happen in the fairy tale land- for the better. Through the entire changes one thing remained the same: People adapted their old lives into the lives they held in Storybrook, whether they built homes similar to what they used to have, took up their Storybrook occupation or kept the name they answered to for twenty nine years. In various towns people saw a woman and a boy, a woman and rugged teenager, a woman and a mysterious young man over the years until another hole was dug under the apple tree. Like her neighbor, Emma's headstone read, 'Brave Mother of Henry Mills'. She would never know that the man took up her last name as well. When King Charming died years later, the mysterious man vanished from his forests and took his place on the throne as he best king anyone has ever known. King Henry was buried at the feet of his mothers many years after that.

Through all this, the apple tree continued to sprout the reddest apples year after year, while it held on to the leaves through the bitter winters. Once in a while the garden's caretaker found one fallen apple on top of the once Evil Queen's statue, but he knew it was never a coincidence, not when next to the apple was a single red rose. Grumpy knew who they were from. The history of Storybrook curse that had been on the residents became its own fairytale in the end, the saddest part being about the fallen hero and the broken souls who wandered the earth without her...


End file.
